You have choosen a fine automobile for purchase. It has the potential of crossing the 500,000 mile mark!!

My direct experience stems from a 94 E320 (W124), but I have found that all these "eccentric" vechicles are more or less the same. Maint. is high but you will be rewarded with a car which has an almost 50/50 weight distribution, well built, solid, comfortable, very low NVH and can easily cruise at triple digit speeds for extended periods of time.

The AC can cost as much as $4000 to repair, depending on what components have failed. If it is the evaporator, this requires about 21 hours of labor.

Plan on spending about $10000 for unplanned maint. for the next 100,000 miles, (assuming you want to keep the car in excellent condition) after that, the cost of operation maybe a little lower as a lot of the component problems are MB design issues. You may also be able to reduce the above number if you have the time to work on the car yourself and utilize the help of this forum.